IPL 2019 will not have an opening ceremony, confirms CoA

The 12th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is to commence on March 23rd. Cricket fans all over have been impatiently waiting for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) to lock horns on the opening night. Above all, it’s also the star-studded opening ceremony that has been looked forward to, just like every year. However, the upcoming season will kick start without the regular opening ceremony this time.

The Committee of Administrators (CoA), on Friday, confirmed the same by announcing that the amount of the budget will be allocated to the families of the CRPF jawans who lost their lives in the recent Pulwama terror attack. The CoA chairman, Vinod Rai, said in a statement, “We will not have any inaugural function for the IPL and the money budgeted for that goes to the martyrs’ families.” Additionally, he also said, "We'll write to ICC expressing our concerns about attacks that took place and that security of players, officials and everybody else must be taken care of. We're telling the cricketing community that in future we must sever ties with nations from where terror emanates."

The deadly Pulwama attack took place a couple of days ago and the aftershocks of it have been felt in the sporting arena as well. There has been a never-ending debate whether India should boycott Pakistan in the upcoming 2019 World Cup or not.